September 20, 2016 on ESPN.com
Kylie Bunbury took a deep breath before stepping on set. The upcoming scene required her character to engage in a rather tense conversation with her fictional mother, Janet Baker (Chastity Dotson), and her agent, Amelia Slater (Ali Larter). She was prepared. She had studied. She put her all into that seemingly fleeting moment.
Bunbury morphed into Ginny Baker, the first female Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher and lead for the new Fox television show “Pitch,” which premieres Sept. 22. This potentially ground-breaking character is a sign of hope for little girls who aspire to join the league, for those who were steered out of baseball because there wasn’t an “end goal,” and for women who love the game but have never found a home within the sport.
However, Ginny Baker is not real. There has never been a woman who stared down a batter from the mound of the San Diego Padres’ Petco Park. Baker hasn’t shattered the glass ceiling to become the first woman to start in an MLB game. She hasn’t walked a player or thrown a single strike. She hasn’t done these things, because she, in fact, does not exist.
At least, not yet.
Katie Barnes 